


Snowflake (A Mad Girl's Love Song)

by Vesperchan



Series: Tumblr Shorts [24]
Category: Naruto
Genre: AU, F/M, Fantasy, Inspired by the Nutcracker, Mad girl's love song, Magic, Peppermint, References to The Nutcracker, Sakura has magic, Sakura is not human, Snowed In, Tinsel, Urban Fantasy, Witch Haruno Sakura, Witch Sakura, Writing Prompt, holiday fic, huge epic adventure story, no beta we die like men
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-24
Updated: 2020-12-24
Packaged: 2021-03-10 18:54:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 11,495
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28282005
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vesperchan/pseuds/Vesperchan
Summary: Sakura must brave the dreams that were left to rot into nightmares to save her friend's student after an accident with a world transfer scroll. The world she has to brave is one she's not faced in seven years, and it's grown a bit more wicked and wild in her absence. What once began as a young girl's fairytale dream, with dancing snowflakes, sugar horses, candy castles, and dashing nutcracker princes, now is so much more.
Relationships: Haruno Sakura/Sasori
Series: Tumblr Shorts [24]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1228031
Comments: 11
Kudos: 73





	Snowflake (A Mad Girl's Love Song)

**Author's Note:**

> Writing prompts: snowed in/tinsel/peppermint

Snowflake   
(A Mad Girl's Love Song)  
  


_I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead;_

_I lift my lids and all is born again._

_(I think I made you up inside my head.)_   
  


* * *

Sakura bit back her curses as she made her way through the mess Kakashi senpai’s kids had left for her to clean up. He was lucky she owed him her life silver times over otherwise she never would have agreed to watching his brats right before a snowstorm. Which crazy bastard had decided it was a good idea to make him a sensei and put him in charge of teaching twelve year olds with magic? And not just that, but it was a team of moody, rebellious boys with a penchant for chaos and zero respect for authority-female or otherwise.

And they wanted to be elite shinobi in the King’s rouge faction? Ha! They’d be lucky if they ended up as artificers at this rate.

This was why she retired from active duty and went commercial with the regional branch of the magician’s guild. A twenty something adult with sever-untreated- PTSD was really the last person who should have been left in charge of a fermenting pickle, let alone three children. The only place that would let that slide was Konoha.

“Cause it’s tradition,” Sakura mocked in a mimicry of Kakashi’s tired excuse. What a dumbass.

In actuality, she was the queen of dumb since she left out plenty of her scrolls and weapons, having forgotten that twelve year olds could use doors and get into rooms they were told to stay out of. She picked up one of the scrolls and frowned at the new wrinkles left behind from how it fell. It wasn’t damaged but she didn’t like how it could have been-considering how expensive the transmutation spell on it was.

She felt her wrist vibrate and turned it over to see the incoming text from her boss.

“Tsunade, what is it? I’m busy with your future clients.”

“What?”

“When I’m done with them they’ll need a doctor,” Sakura grumbled, standing up and stepping over her mess to the far side of the room. “What?”

“I was just calling to let you know not to come into work tomorrow. The snow is going to make things difficult for people to get out of their houses and have accidents so we’re going to keep the staff here for double shifts.”

“I wasn’t planning on coming in even if you asked. I have the whole week off.”

“Who told you that?”

Sakura left the door open behind her and stepped out into the hall, glaring. “Shizune did, but it was your signature. Pay attention next time.” 

“When did this happen?”

“When you were busy, obviously I’d never get your signature otherwise. I’m taking care of a friend’s kids for the weekend and you were nagging me about having too much PTO saved up. It all works out.”

There was some noise on the other end and then Tsunade’s voice was closer to the call device. “You’re watching kids? You know how to do that?”

“I’m not going to dignify your sass with a reply, and I know you knew about my time off so what’s the real reason you called?”

There was significantly more pause on the other end, leaving Sakura time to stomp down the hall and throw open a few more doors in her house, looking for Kakashi’s brats. Then, “Just checking in on you to see how you’re doing this time of year. You seem like you’re in good spirits so I’ll let you go.”

Sakura paused in the doorway and stared down at the screen of her smart watch. “I’m fine. You don’t have to send anyone else from the coven down to check up on me this time either. It’s been years.”

“Years but you still haven’t been able to talk about it.”

Sakura looked up from her watch at the empty room and closed the door behind her. “I’m fine but I have to go track down these kids. I’ll let you know if something comes up.”

“We’ll be here for you.”

Sakura cut the call and turned her wrist around before spinning on her heel to exit the spare study. There was a creaking from upstairs and she followed the noise to one of the junk rooms that had been left for her by the previous owner, a witch with more centuries under her belt than she could remember. There was plenty of fun magic left behind but far more junk. A decade after inheriting the property Sakura was confident she had sorted out most of the dangerous relics from the upstairs rooms and locked down what needed to be better guarded.

Funny thing about magic though…

Sakura slammed the door open and the two boys crouched atop the pile of junk flinched hard enough to fall backwards but only Sai landed on his feet. She heard them curse as Sasuke struggled to stand and pretend nothing was out of place.

“What are you doing here and where the hell is Naruto? Did you stuff him inside of a box?”

“No,” Sasuke was quickly to deny.

“Naruto stuffed himself inside of a box when Sasuke said he didn’t think he could,” Sai explained calmly.

Sakura pinched the bridge of her nose. “What box?”

Both boys shrugged and looked away, but Sakura knew which one would cave first so she grabbed Sasuke by the back of his shirt and flipped him around so that she had him pinned under her arm. She snapped at Sai and pointed to the door, ignoring the way Sasuke screamed and cursed to be let go. If he wanted to act like a football she would treat him like one. With Sasuke underarm, Sai bowed his head and scurried off first to lead Sakura to where they had last left Naruto.

To no one’s shock it was in one of the kitchen cabinets.

“He’s a bloody contortionist,” Sakura muttered before dropping Sasuke to pull Naruto out. He came out limp and dozing, drool spilling from his open mouth as he snored from the new angle. Sai helped her pull his friend out and Sasuke noticed what fell out of the cabinet once Naruto was free.

“He stole one of your scrolls,” Sasuke tattled, sounding almost smug when he noticed.

Sakura pulled out the opened scroll and turned it over, not recognizing it. A second later dread settled in her gut. She hadn’t seen this scroll opened since she broke the seal on it seven years ago and nearly lost herself. Once more the binding was shattered and the spell was active. She crouched down next to Naruto and murmured a simple enchantment, trying to ascertain the status of his body. Physically he was fine…but spiritually, there was no soul.

“What are you doing?” Sai asked, almost sounding worried.

“Pick him up, we need to take him to the sun room. His body is going to start losing heat soon,” Sakura said instead, already running back into one of her studies to pull down the things she’d need for this ritual.

“Wait, what happened to Naruto? Where are you going?” Sasuke was all questions even as Sai began to follow her instructions.

When she came back down Sasuke had eventually pitched in to help set up Naruto in the warm center of her greenhouse and she instructed them on where to lay the body before pouring out a ring of salt. Sasuke was still curious but worry was making him obedient.

“What did Naruto do?” Sai asked as Sakura was setting up the four cornerstone anchors to her seal.

“He touched something he shouldn’t have. It has his soul now and I’ll need to get it back,” Sakura said while positioning the quartz at the first junction.She had a preserved swan wing at the opposite end and different dried plants in a bowl for the third. Sai thought he recognized mistletoe or maybe it was holly in the bowl.

Sakura cursed under her breath and looked at the last of her items, debating on what she would take with her last. There was only one space left and not enough time to weigh the pros and cons of all her options. The last time she visited she had been younger, dumber, and not nearly as well prepared. What she wished she had back then…

There was a silver vile with crackling light trapped inside. ‘Tinsel lightning’ as Kakashi called it. When shook it almost tinkled like bells instead of birds. Sakura stood it up at the last point and then stood over Naruto to draw a sigil on his forehead with paint. Finally, she faced the quartz and attached the bracer to her left hand.

“Watch over this site, I should be back in no time but if it’s longer than an hour call Kakashi and tell him. He’ll panic but that’s what he deserves,” Sakura grumbled.

She didn’t look back before checking over the bracer to make sure it’s teeth were safely layered over the back of her arm. She placed her hand atop the clustered quartz and tensed. The bracer on her arm whined and then cut into her, bleeding her so that it ran down her hand and onto the quartz.

Sai and Sasuke both stepped back as the entire area lit up. The components went up in white flames as they were consumed and then so was Sakura.

* * *

Sakura opened her eyes and looked down at her hands. The bracer was gone along with her modern clothing. She was back in peasant garb and little else. She turned her hands over and found the different symbols for the components she had spent on the spell. The swan wing was on the inside of her arms, the lightning etching into the palm of her left hand and her write hand was where the design for her Holly Wand and Mistletoe Sword were etched.

This would do.

When she turned the gravel and dirt crunched underneath her boots. The forest was soft with the haze of early morning fog that settled between the white wood trees. In the early light their leaves were a translucent lilac that glistened in shades of pink and rose. It was an enchanting sight that betrayed how horrible it really was.

In the middle of the forest she wasn’t sure where she needed to go next, but she knew Naruto couldn’t be far. She’d be able to find him so long as he wasn’t-

The clatter of wheels and hooves on stone made her flinch and dive for the low hanging fog. She felt magic in her hands and held it there, waiting to see if she would need to use it. There was shouting and cheering as a procession passed on the other side of the trees, looking too happy to be careful or cautious. They didn’t seem aware of anything as they rolled on past, cheering to some sort of victory.

Sakura hadn’t been able to see they well but memory filled in the gaps. She had been here before, played these games, suffered her hurts and gone home with no one else the wiser. Chiyo’s curses were not an easy thing to forget and this bridge to a world of soul stealers was one of the worst ones.

The locals looked human, if not a bit prettier with the typical flawless skin and too bright eyes that often followed magical beings. The ones who passed didn’t look like subjects of _Spielzeugland_ , their outfits were too colorful for that.

Maybe _Süßigkeitenland_?

Ahh, this is why child prodigies shouldn’t be allowed to dabble in pure creation magic. Over two hundred years ago someone heard a story and then made a world where that story could be real. But wishes always cost something and this land of toys and candy consumed precious things in order to sustain itself. What once had been a dream now stood out as a nightmare in Sakura’s memory.

Sakura burned a spell slot on a disguise self that transformed her into a simple masked solider who wouldn’t attract too much attention. In a muted navy colored coat trimmed in gold designs and trousers to match she could hide her candy colored hair up in her hat and pass as just another local.

If the people were celebrating something she bet she knew what it was.

“Is that disguise supposed to fool people?”

Sakura turned on her heel, brandishing her Mistletoe sword, teeth bared and ready for a fight-she wasn’t a ninja anymore but she would never not be dangerous again.

The owl on the tree branch ruffled his feathers and picked at them bit, seemingly unbothered with Sakura’s stance. She recognized the owl from her first adventure so many years ago.

“You,” she hissed in contempt.

“Me,” the owl mocked.

“I should have known you’d notice me the second I arrived. Are you going to watch from a distance this time too? Get your laughs from my misery?” She didn’t put away her sword but kept it out, even though there was nothing she could do to harm the game master. He was the entity that held the world together and moderated it for the inhabitants. He was also the one that kept them in check.

“That child fell in on his own, that’s no fault of mine.”

“I’ve been feeding this damn world ample amounts of magic, there’s no need to steal souls.”

“When you fill up on dinner there is no need for cake, ah, but how we want it, yes?”

“Barbaric.”

“That’s what happens, that’s what happens!” 

Sakura swiped with her sword and the bird fell apart into two separate pieces, sawdust swirling down atop the clever halves of wood left behind. It was only a medium for the game master of this world, destroying it would do no one any good. The whole world had to be dismantled-something not even her coven’s matriarch could accomplish. The world had grown too much and developed too far to be erased now. It was just as alive as the world she left behind, even if at times it felt too ridiculous to be believed.

_“The dreams of children who believe so sincerely are dangerous things indeed.”_

All of Tsunade’s warnings felt empty now.

Sakura ran off into the woods, dismissing her sword to better run ahead. The soldiers who had ran off ahead of her were on horses or unicorns so there was little chance of her overtaking them, but the hoof prints in the silvery gray soil was enough for her to make a trail out of. She tracked them through the misty lilac colored forest out to a clearing and over hills until she saw the first settlement.

When she inhaled she could smell the peppermint and saw the colors that were so easily recognizable. Yup, she was in _Süßigkeitenland_ alright. Where else were the lamp posts candy cane stalks and the fence posts made out of peppermint branches?

In another time this might have calmed her and filled her heart with happy pulses, but now all she felt was dread. She wasn’t a little girl anymore and she understood that dreams were meant to end for a reason.

“Twisted fae abomination,” Sakura muttered under her breath before pulling down the front of her cap.

She wouldn’t stand out too much even thought she was dressed as someone from the neighboring lands. She wore ‘doll’ colors. There were children perched on the fence posts who weren’t really children and just walking in front of them was going to be a skill check she wasn’t nearly as confident of.

But she hadn’t been one of Kakashi’s equals for nothing. Confidently making her way through the main street through the twisting chocolate cobblestone streets, she followed it to the end and breathed a sigh of relief when she picked up more tracks on the other side of the small village.

“Hey you!”

When Sakura turned back she saw a couple of rougher looking fae with the red and white outfits that designated them as inhabitants of their themed village. There were two farm hand looking men and a shepherdess behind them. Sakura paused and half turned back, ready to draw her weapon if she needed to.

“You’re late, aren’t you?” the shepherdess laughed along with the farmer closest to her. “The rest of the prince’s regiment already passed through her a day ago.”

“Don’t you have a horse?” the first farmer asked.

“I… don’t have money for a new one,” Sakura lied.

“Trade you a story for a pony?” he countered.

Ah yes. There was no currency more valued than tales among the immoral people. She realized as she turned back to face them she hadn’t been successful in deceiving the people but they hadn’t minded that as much. They knew what she was and wanted something other than her life.

“Do you have a fast one?” Sakura asked, pushing back her hat so that her cotton candy colored hair bounced free, ethereal like the legacy she had inherited.

“We’ve got what you need, dream walker.”

_Once upon a time a girl believed in dreams. This was dangerous because those dreams believed in her. Before she knew better she had dreamed up a world to suite the story her mother told her every Yule Tide; a story of nutcrackers and mouse kings and sugar kingdoms where snowflakes danced on glass lakes of white._

_The real world was scary, filled with hunters and monsters and debt that led to poverty.Discrimination was something she learned too young and bore the scars from. Her mother cut down their ears and dyed their hair to hide among the humans, but the world still hurt too much._

_Do you know what’s stronger than the dreams of a child?_

_Not much._

_In sleep there was nothing to stop her, no power or witch hunt that could scare her into hiding. There were no hunters or monsters, only the soft and pleasant places she imagined for herself. She dreamed up a knight to save her, a world to rule, a land full of sugar and sweets. She dreamed of being loved, of being adored and worshiped with all the fever that others hated her with in the waking world. Instead of bonfires there were castles. Instead of chains there were glittering dresses and crowns instead of scars._

_At times it seemed the only thing she stayed alive for, the quiet of night where she could change out the scars on her toes for glass slippers and the bruises for ball gowns._

_When they killed her mother she didn’t know what else to do._

_They’d find her next, smoke her out of hiding and hang her body from the high places, crowned with a tiara of mistletoe thorns and a hole in the chest where two hearts once beat._

_“I’ll trade one of those for you to be real,” she told the dream from inside the hallow of a log where dogs couldn’t track her. The wet thicket outside hid her too well._

_The next part is hazy. Who or what officiated the transfer is still…unknown._

_Chiyo found what was left and sealed the child up in a glass coffin for two hundred and twenty two years._

_What became of the fae child’s second heart?_

_Dreams and desperation are both potent currencies in the goblin market, they say._

_So many years later a witch uncovered the child with little round ears and broke her free from the glass cage, raised her as her own, nurtured her in a more accepting society then graduated her from hunted prey to valued official in the king’s country._

_That little girl might never have remembered anything before the time of her long slumber if not for the scroll she stumbled upon seven years ago._

_After two hundred and twenty two years her dreams had morphed into something more akin to nightmares. Something she ran from-ran from and never looked back at_.

...

But that’s not the story Sakura tells them.

“The story begins on Christmas Eve, at the Stahlbaum house,” Sakura says. “Marie, nine, and her seven year old brother, Fritz, sit outside the parlor speculating about what kind of present their godfather, Drosselmeyer, who is a clockmaker and inventor, has made for them.”

* * *

The stars go waltzing out in blue and red,

And arbitrary blackness gallops in:

I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead.

* * *

Sakura readjusted the cap and turned in her saddle to glance back at the little peppermint village. It was a speck in the distance, but she could still see the sugar sheepdogs racing to coral the candy floss sheep back into their pens. The shepherdess used her crook to guide the stragglers back.

When looking back she had almost expected to see pitchforks and hungry mouths, running up the hill after her. She had been bracing for the terror…expecting it. The fact that she now sat atop a pure white sugar pony with candy red fetlocks still surprised her. Seven years ago this place had been a nightmare. Maybe it was because she started out in such a rural corner of the dream world. Maybe it was because seven years ago she was still not as old as she needed to be to face and ugly truth.

_“There is a party in the capital.”_

_“You should hurry there. The hour is near when the best festivities are bound to begin!”_

Sakura tuned her steed back to the road and urged it on, racing against time as the first few flakes of coconut shavings began to drift lazily down on the wintery world. All roads eventually lead to the heart of Süßigkeitenland, which was Marzipan castle, but before the castle there was The City of Delights where it seemed everyone had turned out of their homes and shops to celebrate in the streets. So many of the buildings reminded her of ones from centuries past with their sloped roofs and stone foundations.

She felt sick in spite of herself. She needed to find Naruto fast and get him out before things got any more complicated. A brand new soul in the dream world would be an honored guest at whatever party the locals were throwing.

The crowds became too dense and she realized that she wasn’t getting any further as a mounted solider in uniform. People nearby in their candy colored dresses and outfits tugged at her pants to try and get her to dismount and join them. They were feeding her pony sugarplums.

She slipped off the saddle and waded through the revelers, pushing her way into an empty home like it was her own. With everyone outside there was no one left inside to see her turn the nature of her spell into something new. Her uniform fell away and she rolled her shoulders into sequined beadwork that crept over her body in icicle and frostbitten patterns, protecting her modesty only as much as it needed to. The extra tulle made her tea length winter dress flare enough for better mobility.

When she saw herself in the reflection of the windows she looked like one of the snowflake dancers, apart from her candy colored hair. No one would think twice about her belonging in the streets but getting into he castle was another thing.

Her thoughts were interrupted by the front door opening. A pair of red coats stumbled in, laughing together, one taller than the other. Neither was wearing their caps but Sakura saw the first one carrying it under his arm.

“Sorry to barge in, you have a bathroom my friend can use, un?” he laughed, eyes hazy with revelry. He looked around the room before spotting Sakura and then went still.

She pointed to the back, guessing where the water closet would be without knowing. “Help yourself, I was just on my way out.”

The shorter solider pushed away from his companion and made a bee line for the back, opening a couple of doors before he found what he wanted. The blond in uniform hadn’t moved.

A second later he blinked hard and straightened. The haze in his eyes faded and it seemed as if a sense of awareness came back to him. He pushed back his blond hair out of his eyes, folding a heavy bang behind his ear like that would help. “You’re…going to the party then? Sorry, I’m not a local. We’re…I…what’s your name?” he stuttered.

“I thought it was good manners to introduce yourself first before asking someone else their name,” Sakura said, already recognizing the stammer for what it was.

The inhabitants of the dream world were soft when it came to dreamers. Looking at someone from the outside was like looking at moonlight for the first time instead of its cloudy reflection on broken glass. This wasn’t the first time Sakura had encountered an inhabitant who was so susceptible to her natural thrall. It meant he had stumbled into this dream from the fay wild along with so many other who wanted to play at some make believe role. The dreamed up people stuck to their script without fail and adored her only if that’s what they had been dreamed up to do.

“Oh yeah, Deidara, I’m Deidara un, you can call me that. You said you were heading out though. I-we’re sorry if we interrupted anything. You have someone waiting for you?”

“Hopefully. I’m Sakura by the way. I take it you are from _Das Land der Puppen_?" The old words rolled off the tongue and she felt almost out of sorts speaking them aloud. A long time ago she had sounded so similar.

“The uniform give it away?” he laughed. “I guess you recognize it too. I thought the locals were beginning to forget what we look like. It’s been five or six years since we were last out of the city.” Deidara paused and then shook his head. “No wait, maybe it was seven years now.”

That made Sakura perk up. Seven was a special number after all. “What happened seven years ago?”

Deidara shrugged, subtly inching closer with a feint of nonchalance. “Nothing terribly important, it’s just the word of our lord who dictates our comings and goings. He wanted us to stay local I guess, no greater reason to it.”

Sakura figured he was either lying or he really didn’t know. She wasn’t sure how well she could read his expressions but she wasn’t willing to waste any more time trying to figure it out.

“Well, I have friends waiting for me I need to catch up with,” Sakura explained. “If you an your friend can see yourselves out that’ll be fine with me, but I’ve already wasted too much time getting ready here and I need to hurry.”

“You’re going to the castle?” Deidara guessed, stepping closer and gripping the brim of his cap a little tighter. “You’ll be swarmed out there on your own.”

She hadn’t said she was heading to the castle, but her outfit was a bit too fine and fancy for reveling in the streets so she didn’t suspect him of anything. “I’ll be fine on my own, Deidara.”

“We-really it isn’t a problem if you need an escort since we’re heading out that way ourselves. Give my mate a minute and the two of us can walk you up and get you inside no problem!” he said, sounding almost panicked at the thought of her leaving his sight. She knew it wasn’t anything special, it was only her nature that he was attracted to. Maybe she was lovely and maybe he did have tastes she suited, but when the dream burned away so would all his senses. It wasn’t a real feeling.

Still…

“I wouldn’t want to trouble you. I’d likely be heading into a different corner of the castle with the other girls once we arrived,” Sakura said.

“That’s fine, it’s no trouble. We’d be happy to help.” He nervously pushed back a chunk of honey colored bangs as they fell in front of his one eye and laughed. “It would be our pleasure to escort such a pretty dancer up to the candy people’s castle.”

A lifetime ago Sakura would have taken far more delight in Deidara’s words. She lived for the complements and praise, the sparkling dresses and twinkling lights. A lifetime ago this was all she wanted.

“If you’re fine with me, I’d be honored Deidara.” Sakura turned her wrist over and crossed her arm in front of her chest before bowing low, perfect posture for the stage where dancers made themselves into snowflakes and dreams.

“Of course, Sakura…I can call you Sakura, can’t I?” he asked.

She offered him her hand and he rushed to take it. “Of course.”

A minute later the other solider came out and Sakura went with Deidara, taking his offered arm as he fit his cap back into place and led her out into the crowds. People stared at her as they passed and Sakura heard their whispers of glee. She knew she was a sight, but didn’t care as Deidara pushed through them.

There was a unit of mounted soldiers in similar red jackets with cream white leggings and coal colored boots. Just like soldiers from a fairytale. Some of them saw Deidara with the girl on his arm and protested about how unfair it was while others all but broke their necks to get a look. Deidara ignored them all as he lifted Sakura up into his saddle and then followed after her, using one arm to wrap around her waist and keep her close while the other handled the reigns.

“What are you doing heading up to the castle, doll?” one of them called out, trying to lean out of his saddle far enough to get a proper look.

“I’m planning on bringing up an appropriate amount of chaos. What about yourself?” she flirted.

“That sounds like something Deidara’s girl would say. You sure you just met?” someone else laughed.

“Don’t mind them, they’re just scoundrels,” Deidara murmured in her ear as the procession turned towards Marzipan castle. “You don’t have to answer them if you don’t want to.”

“It’s no bother, I know it’s harmless. But what about you and your boys? What’ll you be doing inside the castle. Maybe our paths will cross again.”

“We’re just an official envoy sent by the prince. He’ll likely not show this year too, but it’s been too long since he made an effort to appear friendly, un,” Deidara explained, missing the way Sakura couldn’t help but flinch when he mentioned the prince.

The prince of the dolls.

“The prince will not be joining the party?” Sakura asked, forcing her eyes to look elsewhere least he see the honest emotion in them. There were few she had as harsh a history with.

“No one really knows, but he likely won’t show. He’s been a good ruler, no doubt about that with us, but he’s not the most social butterfly,” Deidara explained. “Some said he can’t stand the face of the current monarch but I ain’t one to say what’s not my business ya know. Sorry if that’s boring news. I didn’t think most of the sugar people cared about what went on in our land.” 

“Maybe not but…he seems like a sad sort of fellow, never enjoying theses parties. Don’t you think so? There is always so much enchantment in these places,” Sakura said, forcing her smile with practiced ease.

“Is that with or without your chaos?” Deidara teased.

“Oh, we’ll see.”

The procession passed over the drawbridge where swans drifted underneath. The moat glistened with shades of pink and red while rose petals drifted atop the surface. It was beautiful enough to breath in but not so enchanting that Sakura was tempted to stay. She hadn’t forgotten what she cameto this place for.

“So, you have someone waiting for you inside or…just your friends you said?” Deidara asked, sounding distracted as he stared down at Sakura in front of him in the saddle.

“I’m sure if we meet up again I’ll be free to give you a dance, I’m not spoken for if that’s what you’re trying to ask,” Sakura laughed. “Why, do you have someone you have to leave behind?”

“No!” he was quick to answer. “Not at all, just, I’ll be a sore thumb in there with no one else to talk to but these boys. I-we’re just visitors after all.”

“You’re dashing young visitors though,” Sakura gently corrected, knowing what she saw when she looked back up at Deidara.

He was the type of man she would have broken her heart for and swooned low for as a girl. Before she broke her own heart he would have been her knight in shining armor fantasy. Not caring for the repercussions she reached up with one of her hands to lean back and touch the side of his face with the back of her knuckles, trailing her fingers off the edge of his fair face. Hypnotized his eye lids lowered halfway and he inclined his face enough to kiss the curls of her hair. 

“Does this dashing young visitor have enough luck to win a dance, do you think, un?”

“Luck might not have so much to do with it. We’ll see it if I make it out that far.”

Deidara didn’t say anything more but stayed quiet in the saddle behind him as they were waved in and taken to the innermost courtyard where decorated jesters and dancers gathered in clusters before moving into the main reception hall.

Stable boys came up to take their horses but Deidara dismounted first, turning to pull Sakura down, hands encircling her waist with enough strength to pick her up and turn her around before settling her on the ground with care. Behind him someone took his horse but his hands lingered on her waist.

“Why do I feel like if I let go of you now I’ll never forgive myself?” he asked in a voice barely above a whisper.

Sakura wished she had a sassy answer for him, a flirty reply that would satisfy. ‘It’s not your fault-it is in your nature to be drawn to sparkly things like me.’

“You’re very smooth with the ladies. I don’t doubt you’ll have any trouble enjoying yourself inside,” Sakura laughed. She stepped away from him and his hands slid off her hips on their own. He took a step towards her but Sakura was already turning around to sprint towards the open doors to the castle while a higher up called out to Deidara.

There were already several clusters of dancers mingling in the halls that seemed to pay Sakura no mind. She passed by largely unheeded until discovering the main ballroom. The room was vast and sprawling with a live orchestra in the far center section. There were off shoot rooms with food and lounging couches as well as salons for ladies to fix their faces, but at the head of the main room was the elevated thrones. The queen of _Süßigkeitenland_ sat casually in the corner of her throne, draped in barely there swatch of maroon gauze and jewels. A veil obscured her face, attached to the pointed crown accented in rubies and black stones. An empty seat beside her was reserved for the ‘guest of honor’ who was yet to be named.

Sakura took advantage of the natural distraction the red coated soldiers created when they entered the dance hall after her. Sugar land ladies and their friends tethered in delight at the sight of their decorated neighbors. Someone asked when their prince would join them and Sakura dipped away before she could hear the answer.

She lifted her hand level with her eye and pinched the air until it became harder quartz between her fingers, red at the center-colored with her blood. “Show me what I want to find,” she whispered to the stone before crushing it between her fingers. Like rock candy it shattered between her fingers and the crystals stained a path in the air leading her to where she wanted to be.

Up the stairs and down a new hallway she followed the magic until it ended in front of a set of heavy double doors, guarded by two candy colored guards. One stepped forward with his hand up.

“The part is downstairs. All guests-”

He didn’t get to finish the rest of his sentence as the top half of his head tumbled to the ground and shattered into sugar. The rest of his body fell limp and dissolved at her feet, losing its form. Sakura drew her sword back and slashed again so the second guard would fall before he could even realize what was going on. With the two piles of sparkling sugar crystal at her feet Sakura stepped over the mess to the door and pushed.

Inside the room was plush with carpets and pillows. In the center of the room under the stained glass lamps Naruto lounged, looking drunk on all the chocolate and candy that stained his face. There were wrappers scattered across the floor and the scent of his favorite fizzy drink. She noticed a low table with glass decanters, but when she sniffed there was no wine-only soda.

“Sakura?” Naruto slurred, sounding part sleepy part drunk. Fae food had that effect on humans. “You’re hereeeeeee!”

He tumbled off the pillow he sat on and giggled. “Get up, idiot,” Sakura sighed, feeling too old for this nonsense. “You’re going to get me in trouble at this rate. I’ll bring you back and have you barfing up all this junk, just my luck.”

Sakura reached for Naruto but there was the sound of air cutting and she brought her blade up just in time to stop another from slicing through her neck.

“The thief knows how to block, what a relief,” the attacker cooed. “And here I thought my night was going to be a massive bore. Little snowflake, what are you doing here?”

“I’m taking home what belongs to me,” Sakura cooly answered, turning around to face her attacker while keeping her blade on the metal it had already stopped. “You’re gonna need your eyes checked if you’re calling me the thief.”

The woman behind her was dressed in glittery white and gold. Her uniform was trimmed in tassels and her eyes were colored with the same shade of gold. Her navy blue hair was pinned up away from her face to show off the point of her fae ears.

‘Prick.’

“You’re going to have to surrender now, little snowflake. That’s our treasure and we’re not eager to lose him after all the trouble we went through to claim him for ourselves.”

“Listen to you nuts, talking about people like they’re things you can claim when you don’t even own the land you stand on. I’m not going to say this nicely more than once. Let me and my kid pass and you can keep your neck, lady.”

Sakura didn’t recognize the solider in front of her, but she knew she wasn’t part of the original dream. She must have been one of the few that stumbled into this world like Deidara. Too bad Sakura’s thrall wasn’t working on her.

“The name is Konan, use it when you curse me before your death,” she hissed before drawing back to charge.

Sakura didn’t hesitate but met the charge blade for blade, sliding the edge of her sword down Konan’s so that the metals shrieked. She then broke off and twirled away, manifesting a second short sword to cover her back as she feinted an opening. Konan fell for it and Sakura got one good swipe in that forced Konan backwards.

“Guards!” Konan screamed, causing Sakura to curse.

She dropped her short sword and then used her left hand to grab at the air. She manifested a black rock that she cracked open with her fist. From inside the sound of a thousand bells almost shook the castle as tinsel lightning crackled free from between her fingers. It wasn’t a swarm of birds but it was enough to change the tide of battle. Sakura screamed and punched the ground, shattering the world around them.

The wings on her arms lit up as she fed magic into them and transformed to accommodate the shift. She took Naruto under one arm and pushed off with glittering heels as her dress shortened and shifted in design with corded embroidery across her chest and down her sleeves. Her hair felt gathered up and the stray feathers from her headpiece tickled her cheeks.

The side of the castle where Naruto’s room had been was an open wound as Sakura flew free with the boy under her arm. Several other winged creatures-swans from the moat- surged upwards to give chase but Sakura gathered more lightning into her hand and the sky above her echoed with its own wild lighting. Sakura screamed and the heavy arches of electricity seared through all the different winged creatures, clearing the sky for her.

She breathed deeply for a moment, seeing with clarity the world around her for what it was. It was night, the moon was rising and the sky was black and speckled with stars that turned the whole world into a canvas of soft silver. She inhaled deeply, the scent of sugar and snow living in her lungs until the next exhale.

That’s when the arrow through her chest took her by surprise. She almost dropped Naruto, but gathered him into his arms in time to save him from crashing into the garden below. With her wings out she glided into the hedges and landed there, screaming from the golden shaft of an archer’s vengeance. She grabbed at it and flinched when she felt the magic there. No wonder it had managed to land a hit on her.

“Darling, you’re not leaving, are you?” a new voice cooed.

Sakura looked up and saw the queen, veiled and regal in her ready posture. A golden bow hung from one hand and at her side a servant knelt with a quiver of enchanted arrows. The queen passed both these off and clapped her hands like there was something to applaud. Her veil shifted but never lifted enough to show off her face.

“Fuck you bitch-face,” Sakura slurred, struggling to stand with one hand around the shaft still stuck inside her chest. Luckily it had hit one of her lungs and nothing critically vital. She could patch a lung up faster than she could plug an artery.

The queen went to speak but Sakura held up a finger and coughed blood. “Not done,” she wheezed around the wound in her chest. It was already starting to glow green and soon she’d be able to pull the arrow free without worry, but the pain enraged her. “Damn, stale flavored trollop ass squeezed shit for brains.”

“How colorful, are you quite done?”

“You’d like to think that, wouldn’t you, but I haven’t even begun you snake gutted sham of a roadside rodeo circus freak.”

“It seems you’re upset, but that was hard to avoid when you tried to make off with our most treasured guest. We couldn’t have that. Did you think you’d be able to walk in again like nothing mattered and take whatever you wanted just because you look like that?” the queen taunted while reaching up to roll back the veil.

The face underneath was perfect and painted with delicate leaf shaped ears, free of scars, and full red lips twisting into a smirk of victory. Her eyes were black where they should have been white, while her irises throbbed with vivid color. Sakura stared up at the queen and hated how she saw her own face. Of course the queen of this damn place would be a creature made in the dreamer’s own likeness. Was that how she got Naruto to follow her.

Sakura hated her own round ears and the scars that crested over their tops from a childhood mutilation. When she looked up at the queen she saw what she should have been and burned even hotter with anger.

“You’re nothing but a fake,” Sakura sneered. “You can’t keep me here.”

“You’d like to think that, wouldn’t you. Poor bird.”

Sakura hated the sound of her own voice, twisted and mocking. It was everything she wished she had grown up to be while also being what she despised the most about herself. A long time ago the choice to grow in grace had been stolen from her and she was left with the result-for better or worse.

Seven years ago the big bad had been a mouse king but when she left it had been in a hurry. The hole she left behind had to be filled by someone… or something.

Regardless, she had Naruto, she just had to grab him and recite the spell that could free her.He was behind her and still loopy but awake and aware enough to reach for her when Sakura offered him her free hand. Once she felt his rough palm against hers she summoned her magic int her mouth.

 _“The stars go waltzing out in blue and red, and arbitrary blackness gallops in: I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead,”_ Sakura murmured the words to her enchantment under her breath, heaving out their magics like lyrics.

The feedback was brutal. Sakura screamed and dropped Naruto to grab at her chest where the knot throbbed hardest. Blood coated the inside of her mouth and she doubled over to spit clots of red onto the grass. White roses stained with red freckles, mocking her pain.

What the hell?

She looked up and the world was still a terrible nightmare.

How?

She had said the words correctly and she had more than enough magic to make the transition. When she glanced back for Naruto she realized he was gone, in his place was the glittering essence of her personage. He had made it, woken up in the real world.

Why not her?

“Grab the bitch,” the queen roared, sounding enraged. “She spirited our soul away!”

Weakened Sakura could barely put up any resistance when sugary colored guards ran out to grab at her and pull her up onto her knees. She felt a throb in her chest again and stared down at the golden arrow shaft still stuck between her breasts. It was vibrating with soft magic, unsettled by her spell work. She tried to transform and the magic stayed stuck there, caught in the arrow head buried deep in her flesh.

Oh.

That made sense-the arrow was a permanent counter spell. At least Naruto had made it through-that was a lucky stroke.

There were murmurs from the crowd as party goers and guests filtered out into the garden. There were dancers and court ladies amongst the soldiers and counts. Sakura thought she recognized some of them but couldn’t be sure as one of the queen’s guards had grabbed a fistful of her hair and tilted her head back, back, back so that she was bent like an arch with the arrow in her chest straight up. It hurt but the anger was still there, numbing the harshest edges.

“String her up in the hall.”

Sakura squeezed her eyes against the pain and tried to put as much anger between her and the hurt as she was dragged by her hair and arms into the ballroom. She heard the laughing and the whispers and choked on her curses when the arrow in her chest gave another painful throb. She wanted to pull it free- even if it would shred her lung on the way out- but her hands were held apart and she shivered from the cold damage they were pumping into her.

“Look at our little snowflake, here is your entertainment my friends,” the queen’s voice boomed. “We’ll feast on a richer soul tonight my faithful.” 

The court rippled with excitement and Sakura managed to open her eyes enough to see their greed. They tied her with black horse hair around her wrists and then strung her up underneath the white sugar statue of their queen dressed as the sugarplum fairy. It was a dark irony that Sakura was hung beneath her likeness for a hungry fae crowd.

How had she gotten here? She was stronger, fiercer, meaner, and far more prepared than she had been the first time she came to this world as a dreamer seven years ago. What was the difference? That she was taken by surprise? That she had to rescue Naruto?What was it?

“You can’t!”

Sakura managed to open a single eye and saw Deidara there, protesting at the front of his troop. Several of the men in red uniform looked ready to shout out in protest as well.

“Since when did the land of the dolls decide they could guide my hands?” the queen sneered. “These are my lands and your monarch hasn’t appeared in front of me for years so I owe him nothing, not even this explanation, but for my own people I will tell them this. Behold the original sinner. Her face is indeed a mockery of my own for good reason. She came to steal what is mine.”

“Eat her heart!” one of the candy people cheered.

“Cut her open!” someone else shouted.

The world was swimming for her but Sakura forced her head enough to look out and see the queen who giggled in mad glee with Sakura’s fae face; it was barbaric and obscene how pretty she was when she laughed at the bloodiest jokes.

Seven years ago… seven years ago… what had happened?

There was victory and fear, a fear of what came after victory.Back then she had been a young girl on the cusps of womanhood, almost ready for the life that came after graduation. Kakashi was her senior and had her slotted for his anbu team based on her performance under him so far. Her coven mother wanted her to quit that life and join the hospital.

Seven years ago… that’s what Sakura did-no, six years ago. She spent a year in black ops hiding her face and slitting throats, then she couldn’t take it anymore. She fell apart and Tsunade put the pieces back together again.

She was faster now, stronger with deeper magic, keener with her spell work…she was better in every conceivable way but-

“You’re afraid of the thing you want.”

When Sakura looked up she realized she had spoken the words aloud- words Tsunade had told her in the midst of her breakdown. The queen had heard those words and turned to Sakura, face hard with closed off emotion.

Emboldened, Sakura lifted her head and met the stare of the queen head on. “That’s you, because you’re what I left behind, the fear and the longing in quell measure, making a monster in the shape of what I wanted to be.”

“You talk too much for a corpse.”

“The truth will be left behind even when I’m not here. Eat me up, devour me as you please but you’ll be doing yourself no favors. The love you so desire, the acceptance you yearn for… you won’t find that after finishing me off. No one here will love the real you because you’re not even genuine.” Sakura lifted her head and her lips were a taunting sneer. “You’re just what I left behind.” 

Seven years ago that desire had been just as strong. Sakura wanted to be loved for once in her life, not coveted like some precious science experiment. She wanted to be accepted for what she was, mutilations aside. She wanted to be held and seen.

“ _Sakura_.”

Her memory filled with red and the smell of cinnamon and sandalwood. It made her heart throb in a way that had nothing to do with the arrow in her chest. She had been loved once upon a time by a boy who had just as much to lose after falling into her dream alongside her.

“ _When we reach the castle you’ll take me with you, won’t you? We’ll be together after this and it doesn’t have to be a dream_.”

But she couldn’t believe in that. She had paid him lip service even as her heart broke and disappeared the first chance she got, leaving him behind. Because she was afraid of the thing she wanted most of all, she didn’t know how to believe in it.

The queen stood in front of Sakura, staring up at the strung up girl with darkly narrowed eyes. The court behind her was still loud with protests and cheers but she ignored them all. The world fell away as the two halves of the same face stared back at each other.

“Change of plans,” the queen said to her guards. “Take her to my mausoleum. I’ll deal with her personally there.”

“What about the feast?” one of the subjects jeered.

The queen sliced through the subject with a sugar plum blade that twinkled in the moonlight, a ghostly echo of the same blade Sakura had welded on her adventures seven years ago.

“Did I stutter… or were my words not adequate?” She swung the sword and sugar scattered like blood. “Take her, now!”

Someone cut her down and she fell to her knees before someone stepped in front of her and the last thing Sakura saw before she was thrown onto her back was the shape of a fist meant for her. 

* * *

God topples from the sky, hell's fires fade:

Exit seraphim and Satan's men:

I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead.

* * *

_Sasori stared down at the overturned carriage. Sakura stood behind him so she couldn’t see what sort of expression he was making, but after weeks of travel together the lines of his back told their own story._

_“It’s fine, no one was in it when it went over.”_

_“You were in it.”_

_“No, I jumped out before it went over the cliff, there’s a difference. I wasn’t so slow as to get caught up in that swarm. Don’t be so dramatic,” Sakura teased, used to the banter between them._

_He was kind but only enough. At first she had assumed he would be the prince charming fellow but after their first few rocky interactions she knew him more as a person with an opinion she occasionally crossed. The fact that he hadn’t turned around was beginning to bother her._

_“Sasori, don’t look down on me. I’m fine and staring at that hunk of junk isn’t going to change anything. Let’s go already.”_

_He stood amongst the grass in his mud stained trousers that should have been white, but just like so much of their efforts they were a shade short of pristine. His red uniform jacket was fraying at the edges and had tears in it from all the bites and claw attacks he had so far survived. Even his hair was wild but that didn’t detract from his unfair beauty._

_Sakura reached for his shoulder and he spun back to face her on his own, expression dark. Before she could stop him he had already grabbed her by the arms and pulled her close. Her face hurried in the crook of his shoulder as his arms wrapped around her. The hug took her by surprise and it was a moment longer before she could find the willpower to react._

_“Sasori…”_

_“Shhh, just…just for now, please,” he asked in a voice like a whisper. His voice didn’t tremble but his arms around her did. It was enough to stop the sass that she normally used so fluently in his company._

_“I’m safe,” she said instead._

_Sasori turned his face so that his cheek rested atop the crown of her head, brushing aside curls of candy pink. She heard his lips against the top of her skull and din’t mind it when he exhaled the weight of the world while wrapped around her. She hadn’t considered her safety so important to her companion, but the way he reacted made her reconsider._

_“Don’t get hurt,” he murmured into her hair, eyes closed and voice quiet._

_“That’s the plan.” She reached up behind his back and lightly traced patterns with the blunt ends of her nails across his shoulder blades, n to knowing what else to do with her idle hands._

_“You’re such a magnet for disaster.”_

_“That’s how I was made.”_

_Sasori turned his head so his opposite cheek rested against her head and exhaled again. “Even if we both survive I don’t think my heart is going to handle it.”_

_“You’re fae, you’ll survive anything.”_

_Sasori pulled away and cradled her head between his hands. “That may be, but you understand well enough why the immortals who don’t feel stumbled into this world on their own, don’t you. I’m here because I wanted this agony, I wanted to want something, and the role I play here in this make believe pocket of a world gives that to me. I’m alive for the first time in my life and it is misery and bliss. I’ll survive anything but at what cost? I’m not willing to endure an existence without-” His voice caught and she saw the answer in his eyes even if he couldn’t make his words confess that truth._

_“Sasori,” was all she said in reply._

_He reached down and found a way to fit his lips over hers_.

* * *

Sakura came awake a indistinguishable amount of hours later. When she looked up the sky was pale with growing light. She had been out for hours maybe, but time didn’t work the same way in the dreaming realm as it did in the mortal world. Night seemed to last forever.

“You’re an annoying one.”

“Thank you,” Sakura slurred, woozy from being knocked out so harshly.

“It doesn’t make sense why he would come for the worst of us so I’m not going to hold my breath but…” the queen crossed the room in a new gown of dark blue. Her veil was gone along with the crown, but she was still fae and therefore immaculate without even trying.

It took Sakura a second more to realize what the queen was talking about. It made her woozy lipsadopt a mocking smile. “Oh, you want what I left behind. Let me guess, he didn’t want the copy?”

The queen’s eyes blazed with raw emotion and she crossed the stone room to slap Sakura across the face so hard her lip split. Sakura tasted the copper blood in her mouth again and remembered the arrow still in her chest. It was there, but she wouldn’t die from it. Any other human might have, but not her.

“I guess I was right.”

“Shut your mouth you tramp.”

“No need to resort to name calling.”

The queen scoffed but backed away, holding the hand she had struck Sakura with. “Weren’t you the one in the garden slurring vile insults at me like a drunk?”

“No, that was someone else, you should get your vision checked.”

The queen glared. “You must have too much energy left if you’re still able to back talk me so well. The weight of your current predicament seems to have not settled yet. Let me be clear, you’re the loser in our game. You’ve lost spectacularly and now I’m going to use your corpse to get what I want.”

“If you could get what you wanted out of my corpse you would have shot me through the throat or cut me open by now.” Sakura closed her eyes against the running pain that made the world blurry. “What you want isn’t going to come. You should know better. I left him years ago for a reason.”

“Because you were scared.” The queen scoffed and waved her hand dismissively through the air. “You were a coward who left a whole shaped like yourself in the world and I’m here to fill it. Everything you weren’t: brave, beautiful, victorious, I became!”

“And yet you’ve been alone all this time.”

The silence was a physical presence in the room. If a pin were to drop Sakura was sure she would hear it. In her own ears blood pounded like a subtle war drum. When the stone doors rolled backwards it was like the world cracking open. Outside there was daylight and it made her eyes burn to see it. Sakura flinched back and coughed up more blood as the arrow in her chest jostled her lung.

“You came,” the queen exhaled, breathing the words like they were a prayer.

Sakura squinted through the loose hair that had fallen down in front of her face and saw a shadowed figure cut against the dark. The details weren’t there, but they didn’t need to be. She’d reconize that figure anywhere; it haunted enough of her memories.

There were other figures behind him, his soldiers in smart red jacket uniforms and clean white trousers- but he waved for all of them to hang back as he descended the stone steps alone. Behind him the cape draped over one half his shoulders on a golden chain flapped in a breeze that carried the scent of the dawn in Süßigkeitenland.

“Sasori I-”When the queen reached for him he held her at arm’s length with both his hands on her elbows. His eyes were fixated on something past her. Enraged she reached up with her hands and dug them into his uniform, yanking him until he looked at her. “I’m here,” she snarled.

“Let her go,” he threatened. His voice was a familiar wound and Sakura was hurt all over again as the world continued to ring with old and new pains.

“Not until you give me what I want,” she hissed.

“You ask for the impossible.”

“I’ve _captured_ the impossible,” she countered, sounding manic to even Sakura’s ears. The only other sound was the rustle of feathers from the bird landing in front of Sakura.

“You’ve made a grave mistake in harming her, _shade_ ,” Sasori all but sneered down at the queen who’s knees had begun to buckle even as she clung to him. “You should have know the moment you first let that arrow fly this would not end well for a copy like you.”

“I’m the copy you owe yourself to if you want your precious hero to make it home alive. You belong to me. I deserve you-I’m the one who stayed!”

Sasori’s face was a contortion of thinly bridled fury as he recoiled. She screamed and kept her hands on his uniform, following him onto the stairs, but Sasori wasn’t trying to shake her off. He grabbed her by the wrists instead and shouted to the bird in front of Sakura. “Deidara, _now_!”

Sakura opened her eyes in time to see the bird become a man. The familiar solider from earlier stood in front of her and reached for the arrow. His eyes conveyed an apology before he yanked and Sakura screamed as the magical block was pulled from her. Like a cork holding back a dam, all the magic she had been trying to access came rushing back and Sakura transformed with the best of it.

The queen stumbled free of Sasori and screamed, staggering towards Sakura as a new silver blue light filled the dark chambers. She summed her own magic, manifesting a crown and angry fire, but Sakura’s tidal wave of magic was as overwhelming as they came.

Sakura ballgown billowed around her in ruffled folds of frilled silvery blue that complemented a bodice that was closer than skin, spun with beaded winter branches. When the light settled Sakura wore her own crown of spinning silver fire and her eyes were white, filled with crackling power and tinsel lightning.

Sakura looked up past the queen to where Sasori watched her from the stairs. He was grown, the years reflected in the sharp the angles of his cheekbones where once his edges had been soft with youth. His eyes were wide and hungry but his smile was wider, proud of what he was seeing at long last. In that moment Sakura’s fear melted and her heart was warm. There was no resentment, no hate, no disappointment; only love.

“No! You’re the failure! I’m supposed to be the one who wins here. You gave up and ran home-you can’t come back now when I was so close!” the queen screamed, staggering as her magic melted around her. She drew fire into her hands and they spiraled into a pair of twin daggers.

Sakura didn’t say anything but extended her hand and the queen took it as an invitation, charging with her blades out. Sakura let the attack come and only caught the queen at the last minute by knocking both wrists out and head butting her. The queen staggered backwards and Sakura caught her double by the throat with both hands that were already starting to ring.

“You ran away, it’s not fair!” the queen sobbed. “You don’t deserve this.”

“It’s not about deserving,” Sakura said, speaking low before her magic was loosened.

Under the skin Sakura’s tinsel lightning surged, running through the queen’s body until it splintered and cracked. The copy screamed, shrill and high pitched until her body shattered like the shadow it was in the light of dawn.

A weight settled in Sakura’s chest but she felt lighter than she ever had before. When she touched her face she found it wet. After so many years…

“Sakura.”

She looked up and a new sob broke through her when she saw Sasori there. His own eyes glistened with unshed tears. He called her name again and reached for her. She let him, crying when she felt him, real under her hands.

“You’re not…you’re here,” she breathed. “I’m-oh Sasori I’m sorry, I’m sorry! It’s my fault I ran away on you.”

He shushed her, touching her chin and cupping her face before bringing her close enough to kiss. She melted into that kiss and every one that came after even as the world began to melt around them.

* * *

“So…they were okay?” Kakashi hesitantly repeated, looking lost as he stood on the doorstep to Sakura’s house.

Behind him the three boys were playing in the snow again while Kakashi’s dogs whined from the trunk of his station wagon, scratching at the windows in a need to run free in the snow as well.

“They were hellions and I never want to babysit for you again, but no one died,” Sakura not-so-gently corrected.

“Sorry for the trouble, but thank you for watching them on such short notice. I owe you one, Sakura,” Kakashi admitted with a guilty laugh.

“No you don’t, you’ve saved my ass more times than I can count, we’re not even remotely even,” she said while watching the way Naruto ran around the trees screaming his head off. They had a long way to go before they were ready for any rank in the shinobi system.

“Well, I’ll get out of your hair and leave you to your business then. Boys!”

Sakura watched from the doorway as Kakashi wrangled his students into the station wagon with his dogs. They waved from their respective windows and Sakura waved back, watching as they backed out the long driveway covered in snow. Even after they were out of sight Sakura stayed in the doorway, watching the road with a lost look on her face.

She startled when a warm mug of cider was pressed into her hands.

“Hey!”

Sasori leaned down and kissed the side of her face. He smelled like cinnamon and sandalwood. “You were looking lost in thought there, doll, I wanted you to come back to me.”

She hummed happily, leaning away so he could reach her neck with his lips above the collar of her holiday sweater. He hummed happily and commented about how she smelled like peppermint and snowflakes.

“I’ll always come back to you, thanks for waiting,” she softly promised.

Sasori pulled away only enough to see her eyes and she could tell he was smiling by how the corners squinted. “Of course, my snowflake. Anything for you.”

She laughed but turned out of the doorway to close it with her heel, reaching for one more kiss; something he happily obliged her with.

I fancied you’d return the way you said,

But I grow old and I forget your name.

(I think I made you up inside my head.)

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote 90% of this in a mad dash after figuring out what I was going to do with it today. So yes, it's rough. Will I come back and look it over? Maybe. I'm very tired right now but I wanted it out for Christmas eve.
> 
> A couple years back I wrote Sugerplum and that's my nutcracker favorite fic of all time, but it didn't have the happy end for Sasori so here is my fix. Have fun.


End file.
